It doesn’t matter how committed you are to high-quality midwifery.
It happens to the best of us, nerves creep up because midwifery as a job is immense.
In this video, I talk about why confidence and assertiveness are so crucial for your midwifery practice, and not just for your own enjoyment of what you do. Though I’d argue that’s important in itself.
I also go through some of my favourite practical strategies for building confidence and assertiveness as a junior midwife, no matter what kind of negativity you come across.
(I first did this talk for the ‘Normal Physiological Birth Conference 2015’ at RCOG HQ in London. It was incredibly inspiring – gentle, loving, exciting leaders of midwifery were there.)
Points if you already know who the ‘Cronkmeister’ is BEFORE watching the video!
The Secret Community For Midwives In The Making can be found here.
As I say at the end of this video, building confidence and assertiveness as a junior midwife was a large part of my personal journey. The more you practice, the easier it gets. Everything started to come together for me in my last year of midwifery, possibly because I was writing things down for Midwife Diaries.
20 minutes isn’t a long time to talk about this topic – there are far more strategies for developing confidence and assertiveness out there.
So now it’s your turn! Please leave me a comment below letting me know what your best strategy for confidence and assertiveness in midwifery is.
I can’t wait to hear your feedback. Please know that thousands of inspirational midwives and others come to read articles here every week, so your comment could be just what someone needs to make a breakthrough. A massive thank you in advance for sharing your best practices.
Thank you also all my midwife friends who helped with this talk and gave me feedback and strategies.
Much love, Ellie xxx
P.S. If today’s video resonates with you, please share it with midwives, mentors, aspiring midwives – anyone in the childbearing support world who could use some encouragement to stay on their game.
I love your video! I am a student midwife (Belgium). During our training we are not told how to be assertive or confident. No, we are supposed to be assertive and confident…..which is impossible when you are just starting with your internships. Even the bullying is a great problem in the delivery wards as well. So, I am very happy that I have found your website….
Hi Kathlyn, so good to hear you found this helpful – it was exactly what I struggled with, and is a skill like everything is! Good luck with your training and thanks so much for your comment 🙂
Thank you Ellie for your good work!!
Aw, thanks Kathlyn!
I’ve had a rough week I’m a first year and on my second placement in postnatal ward, I wandered if I could email for some advice